Heirs of Merlin: The Hidden Princess and the Tree of Life

Chapter 3

All three children knew they should not be snooping around in the room. They really did. Yet, there were way too many interesting things to just walk away – especially since the earlier monsters didn't appear again. Even Fluffy – or rather, Fluffy more than anyone else – was very keen on checking out everything.

The tapestry featuring angels with golden wings and white dogs accompanying them was of particular interest to their pet. Lana also stopped to watch it for a good while. Something about it felt reassuring. There were others too – of elves, dwarves and all kinds of animals from fantasy books -, but for some reason she felt drawn to this one.

With his little sister too occupied to nag to him about his promise to only look, Alex was quick to return to the old book on the table. It was definitely a spell book. He carefully turned the yellowed pages one after another, marveling at each illustration and strange diagram. If only it were written in English or Spanish. He couldn't understand the handwritten text at all. He couldn't even pronounce any of the words.

Maybe it was Latin? Spell books should be written in Latin. But it didn't really look like Latin (although he only knew a few words from Asterix comics), so maybe it was some magic language instead?

Meanwhile, Samantha was looking through the shelves. Mostly she only looked, but since there was not a speck of dust anywhere, she felt confident to pick up a tiny silver skull. She could put it back and nobody would be any wiser.

It was a lot cooler than the rat's skull she had in her desk drawer. A humanoid one too, just very small. The amount of details was really amazing, almost like it were a real thing. It would have been nice to show it to her friends. They hadn't liked the rat's skull, but this might be different. Even her younger siblings had thought that it was weird to keep such a gruesome thing. They hadn't understood why she liked it.

"Lana, take a look at this!" she hurried to the little girl's side and showed her the silver skull. "Isn't it pretty?"

Lana looked first at the skull and then at her. "Not really..." she trailed off.

That was not the response Samantha had wanted. "Doesn't it look like it's real? You know, a real human skull." Her voice changed pitch like she was telling a ghost story. "Maybe Aunt Valeria is really a headhunter that shrinks the skulls of her victims and dips them in molten silver...She could be only waiting for a chance to ambush you..."

"Stop it!" Lana screeched and backed away. That was a too scary thought. Aunt Valeria was nice. She wasn't...some kind of evil witch!

In her haste, she accidentally walked into one of the shelves and knocked a small stone object to the floor. She quickly picked it up, glad that it had not broken on the impact. It was very light, flat and hexagonal in shape, and there was a really pretty tree engraved on one side.

"Is that some kind of crest?" Samantha asked.

Lana only fumed at her at first. Sam knew she didn't like scary things, so she had done that on purpose. But she was quick to forgive. "I don't know," she admitted. "What's a crest?"

"It's a symbol for a certain family or a place. You know, like those coats of arms with dragons and lions we saw in the museum once."

Alex mostly ignored the girls, still focused on the book. There was a magical-looking magnifying glass hidden between the pages. It was no thicker than a bookmark, with a large glass lens and a frame made of purple, polished stone. Or maybe crystal.

Curious, he looked at the book through the lens. His eyes widened in surprise, and he smiled. He could actually understand the text now! It really was a magical lens!